Вот за это мне поставили "автомат" по английскому.
Компилляция текстов Авантюриста с использованием ранее сделанных (в т.ч.
Хроноскопистом) переводов.
Фазовый расклад "перебит" с поправкой на реальность (как известно, сценарий несколько "поехал").
Generation of the world crisis
or hronology of the Greatest DepressionImperial model of the USA.
History of imperial modelsIntroduction.Generally speaking, the United States as an entity has two sources of income, internal and external. Internal income is a result of the creation of physical and mental products inside the country. External income is the wealth created outside the country and brought in the USA. Internal income used to be the core of American wealth creation. But what is the situation nowadays?
For it’s military and ideological power some people refer to the USA as “an empire”. And they are right. But the term “empire” means something different. Military power and ideological domination are only tools, which empire uses to achieve its imperial goal – so they are not the true imperial goal. There is only one true goal of each empire - to impose tax on other countries and peoples. So let us review various models of colonial taxation that existed in the past in oder to understand historical transformation of American Empire’s colonial taxation.
1) Ancient empires: military conquest – plundering, tribute and slave-traiding.Since ancient times empires used military conquest as the easiest way to impose tax on other countries. Every military victory was immediately followed by pillage in which the conqueror appropriated a significant portion of the treasure previously accumulated by the conquered nation. After the conquered country had been robbed, a direct tribute was placed on the subjugated people. At the same time, a portion of the population was turned into slaves. Later, these slaves were used by the conqueror as free labor, or sold as commodity.
The method of military conquest was universally accepted by the empires as long as agriculture remained the staple of world's economy and the productivity of labor was low and more or less the same all over the world.
2) Enlightened empires: colonial taxation.Development of production and trade in Europe at the end of Middle Ages, appearance of big trade companies and numerous trade and military fleets allowed to replace the model of risky and costly military conquest with less conflictive and more profitable colonial taxation. The essence of colonial taxation is the free exchange of inexpensive mass-manufactured 'products of civilization' for much more valuable natural products. This way trinkets (such as glass beads and mirrors) were exchanged for gold, precious spices, rare furs, etc, at an incredible profit for European merchants.
It was profitable not only for Europeans, but also for aborigines, because they were not killed too often by Europeans any more and now they were even given something valuable in exchange for their traditional goods. They realized, that new empires are better, than old and helped them to fight with old conquest-based empires – that why new empires (Britain, France, Holland, and Russia) quickly replaced old (Spain and Portugal).
But system had serious problems: world was too small for all empires, free territories quickly came to end and new colonies could be took only by taking away from another empires by colonial war. Moreover, some colonies began claiming independence – and they could substantiate their claim with adequate military might. Some of the former colonies even claimed imperial status for themselves, the USA being a prime example. USA became a colonial empire in XIX century and took former Spanish and Portugues colonies in Latin America and South Pacific.
Continuous tensions between empires, caused by lack of colonies, culminated in the beginning of the XX century in WWI. It reduced intensity of problem by redistribution of colonies from losers (Germany, Austo-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Russia) to winners (Britain, France, USA), but didn’t solve it. Moreover, due to the high rate of industrial production and development shortly after WWI led to a devastating crisis of overproduction known as the Great Depression of 1929-1940. At the end of 1930s Germany, Japan, Italy and Russia recovered after war and made a new claim for the previously lost status and colonies. A new clash among the old, new, and revived colonial powers led to WWII.
3) American Empire: financial taxation.The end of the WWII created a unique situation in the world. All the countries including the former empires were now under control or at least domination of the only two superpowers, USA and USSR. Moreover, since the beginning of the WWII industrial production in the USA was growing exponentially, also due to European technologies and professionals received by the USA after WWII. USA had unsurpassed capabilities to manufacture both commodities and means of their transportation. This and control over an enormous market, which included more than half of the world ensured the collection of unprecedented colonial taxes by the USA for several decades.
At that moment, shrewd Americans made an important intellectual breakthrough: they decided, that it is not efficient to compete with their dominions for colonial taxes: more efficient way is to impose taxation on the entire global trade. So, soon after WWII colonial taxation in the world was replaced by financial taxation.
Originally, the essence of financial taxation was in the use of the U.S. dollar as a legal tender in the trade between the USA and all other countries, as well as among other countries. All colonies and dominions of USA had to have a reserve of dollars sufficient to cover their trade needs. As more and more countries got into dollar-based trade, the USA emitted a necessary amount of dollars to match new demands; the higher the volume of trade was getting, the more dollars the USA were printing (and inflation allowed to increase the printing of dollars even more). By manipulating its currency, demand and supply on it the USA were skillfully transforming their money into physical goods and other assets.
All in all, the use of a single currency in international trade was convenient for all participants. Even the constant devaluation of the dollar due to inflation was not a problem, because dollars were primarily in continuous circulation among merchants servicing their trading needs, but not in reserves. And if some foreign government did not like this system, the USA has always had a choice to replace such government with a better one.
4) American Empire: debt taxation.However, in 1970s the global trade capacity for the use of the dollar was exhausted even in spite of the dollar's significant devaluation during global crises of the end of 1970s – the beginning of 1980s. In this situation USA decided to introduced direct colonial taxation in the manner of ancient empires. But methods of robbery changed: now they took form of non-returnable government borrowings (as payment for protection against 'the Evil Empire' (USSR) and for entering on US market). Those, who didn’t want to give money to USA, had a strong chance to face serious economical and political problems. So during only 7 years between 1981 and 1988, the USA’s national debt increased by 75% from $12T to $21T (it was not only foreign finances) – and if nothing had changed, resources of controlled by USA part of the world would be exhausted in 10 or 12 years.
But fate was on the side of USA: at the end of 1980s and beginning of 1990s a lot of new territories entered in USD zone because of collapse of Socialistic block and USSR: new territories, new colonies, new resources. It allowed to reduce for a short time debt taxation (within a 9-year period between 1988 and 1997, the USA increased its debt by 'only' 30% from $21T to $27.5T) and return to financial taxation. However, resources of new colonies were limited – and it lad to the crises of 1997 – 1998 – but they didn’t destroy dollar and didn’t solve the real problem.
Almost all developing nations (including China, Russia, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, etc) got extremely troubled by the recent financial catastrophe, so they hastily began to send their money to the USA in various forms. In order to avert the risk of a new financial disaster, a good half of humanity reduced its consumption down to a bare minimum, and began to meticulously pile up U.S. bank notes and Treasury Bonds. It allowed USA not to reduce, but even increase colonial taxation (within a 7-year period between 1998 and 2005, the USA increased its debt by 55% from $27.5T to $43T). And recovery of destroyed by crisis developing economies allowed USA to increase the monetary mass from $5T to $9.5T. In the beginning of 2007, the U.S. national debt equaled $50T, while U.S. dollar mass exceeded $11T.
5) American Empire: contemporary external taxation.Apart from financial and debt taxation, the USA uses 'traditional' mechanisms of external taxation.
Firstly, it’s usual colonial tax: USA sell high tech products and services, intellectual goods and so one. But U.S. colonial taxation is on sharp decline because numerous U.S. dominions (Europe, Japan, South Korea, etc) are quickly taking over colonial trade which used to be America's prerogative.
The second important external tax is resource tax, for example concessions granted by colonial governments to U.S. corporations at a symbolic price. In the 20th century many wars were fought and coups organized by the USA in response to refusal by local governments to pay this tax.
The third tax is military tax. It was especially important during the Cold War. U.S. colonies used to pay for the maintenance of U.S. military infrastructure in their territory, and sometimes they even paid for construction. Besides, colonies used to purchase American surplus armaments for protection from the Soviet threat. Some countries pay this tax until now.
There are a lot of other external taxes: intellectual (import of specialists, inventions and so one to develop intellectual industry), labor (deploying of industries in countries with very cheap labor), credit (giving a lot of credits to colonies in order them to return them by goods and resources) and many other taxes.
Conclusion.Nowadays volume of colonial taxes, collected by USA, is decreasing sharply: new and resurrected empires are trying to take part of colonial tax to themselves – and it’s very expensive for USA to struggle with this process – so they must do something extraordinary to reload their colonial system.
But are colonial taxes so essential for USA? Let us look.
Genesis of crisis1) Economical supercicles.In the 20th century world economic theory went to the idea of economic super cycles. Theories are different, but the main idea is common: development of economy looks like waves; length of one wave is 50 ± 10 years (there are theories about other kinds of waves, but this is the most common and describes development of economy from one “Great Depression” to another). So, what is the reason of these waves? Why do they exist?
World economy moves to the highest efficiency in given
The world economy constantly moves towards ever increasing level of efficiency given the restraining framework placed on it at the current time. Then at any time appears a new economical doctrine, more efficient in modern situation, then previous. The key characteristic of the new model is its set of basically new economical “tools” (quicker, more efficient, more rational). When these tools appear, they begin to force the old practices out of the marketplace until there is no sphere in economy where they are not used. If the model and its “tools” prove to be locally successful, new doctrine with its practices will spread outside the place, where they appeared.
Unfortunately, there comes a point where the model can’t expand neither extensive, nor intensive. But economy continues to produce its product with increased efficiency – so a mass of theoretically unconsumptionable goods appears. It lads to a strict crisis of overproduction, during which redundant goods and production facilities are annihilated. After that comes a period of depression, connected with low level of production and consumption of product (because it’s artificially restricted production). Crisis and depression makes subjects of economy to search new “tools”, which can help them to solve immanent problems of old economy. When such instruments are found, new economic cycle begins.
So what the history of cycles looks like for USA? From the mille of 19th century there are 3 finished cycles and one that goes to its end right now. Cycles existed before that, but let us look on this period of time.
The first epoch of globalization (1846/51 - 1893/96) was connected with modernization of agriculture (farms vs latifundies), significant mechanization of manufacturing (mostly within the textile sector) and the mass dissemination of goods due to the advent of steam powered transport. The American Civil War was a direct result of a industrialization coming into conflict with the old model of slavery and small scale production. The North began large scale production of agricultural products and on a smaller scale a production of manufactured goods which all needed to be sold on a market – and the primary market was the South, which insisted on old methods of production. When Southern protectionism was destroyed by cavalry and Southern and Latin American markets were captured, a depression, which impoverished millions of American farmers and even more peons in Latin America, occurred.
The following cycle (1896 –1929/32) solved the crisis of the “agrarian-steamer” epoch. The crisis was ended by the redistribution of labor within the agricultural business and by the advent of the era of mass production. This era of mass production was characterized by the assembly line, the growth of industrial opportunities, the mechanization of the agricultural sector, the aggressive saturation of markets with goods, the development of international trade and the mass transformation of rural populations into the urban proletariat. As such the First World War can be seen as a war over markets among the colonial powers and those countries looking to move into those markets. It is further understandable that when the US markets became oversaturated with goods from domestic and foreign producers and when foreign markets could no longer absorb the surpluses, the world hit the overproduction economic crisis of 1929/32. This crisis led to the Great Depression in the USA as well as the rest of the world which in turn led to the rise of nationalistic and fascist governments across the world. This change in governments led to the beginning of the Second World War.
The last completed cycle of (1932/33 – 1967/74) solved the problem of overproduction by developing the consumer market, sp this period can be called the period of mass consumption. It is characterized by the autoimmunization of production, aggressive competition, the rise and development of marketing and the booming development of the services market. The 1932/74 cycle hit its absolute peak in 1965 after which we saw crises come and go with increasing severity. The United stets and Europe tried fighting these crises with varied measures and at one point the battle seemed to be won as the economic situation was looking up. The final blow came in 1974 with the oil crisis which forced the world’s economy to drop like a lead balloon, almost 9 years after the beginning of the crisis period.
Today’s period didn’t finish yet, but it’s different from previous ones. Firstly because it’s main idea was near to the main idea of previous period, but with one exception: growth of consumer market now was based on colonial taxes and other borrowings. So the second difference is that nowadays economy is totally unprofitable and based on wasting of age-old savings of whole world. Now this savings come to end – so we will see a crisis, that will be even stronger, that the Great Depression of 1930th.
2) Economical development of the USA after the World War II.After the World War II USA were the most powerful capitalistic country in the world. The biggest economy, the strongest military forces and so one. It allowed USA to establish their imperial order on whole capitalistic world, including direct colonies (such as Japan, West Germany) and dominions (other big European countries). So after the war American economy produced enormous real profits –and colonial system brought huge taxes. Both internal profits and colonial taxes showed a fast growth.
But in 1956 – 57 the situation began to change. Profits of national economy had begun to reduce (because of recovery of other countries after the war) – and by the year 1969 they disappeared at all. Since this year American economy has been being planned unprofitable – easily speaking, real incomes from main activity became smaller, then expenses on it. So the further “history of success” of American economy is a history of redistributing of colonial taxes. It was a first bankruptcy of USA.
The world economy reacted on it by chain of strict crises of 1968 – 1975 – but nobody noticed it. Americans tried to moderate problem by reducing of expenses by organizing a Détente, but they didn’t touch a real problem.
Further the situation became even more interesting. Real losses of national economy were growing rapidly as governmental expenses since 1980th do, but the growth of colonial taxes was slower and slower. At 1987 losses of national economy became higher, than incomes from colonial taxes. It was the second bankruptcy of USA: bankruptcy of colonial system. So the way to the new Great Depression of 1993 – 1995 and further was open.
Then there was a chain of happy cases: destruction of Soviet block and reduction of competitors’ economic activity (financial crisis in UK, reunion of Germany, long depression in Japan) allowed them to collect additional $15 trillions of colonial taxes (in 2007th dollars) – but they ended by the year 1997. Then America collected additional taxes on crises of 1997 – 98, but amounts were too small: they were not enough even for two years, because nobody tried to use opportunity to solve real problems of US economy.
Then USA started to create bubbles (the biggest were dot.com and real estates bubbles), which took 60 % of savings of individuals and small business. This money also were wasted – so America with its growing expenses and declining incomes has to take the rest of savings. But nobody will give money to government – so the only solution is to take this money by force – or to make a Hyperinflation, which theoretically can solve the majority of USA’s problems (in connection with aggressive geopolitical position).
Злобный модер... Теперь с пулемётом.
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